Need some RAM advice

[Lotherein]

Recently my processor has been going up in usage lately from just about anything even in idle, my antivirus is telling me half my RAM burned out and I am running on 2 gigs but I am not sure if that is true. I'm looking to upgrade to 8 gigs from the initial 4 gigs of RAM when i first got my computer like 3 years ago. I'm not sure if my computer is limited strictly to a 4 or 8 gig maximum, but I am also looking into putting in dual channel RAM because I am a gamer.

[h=1]PNY XLR8 Dual Channel 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory - 2x2048MB[/h]This is what I am looking at and I have 4 RAM slots on the motherboard, any feedback would be grand.

Below is my system info from the msconfig, If you need more info ill be glad to go into the BIOS settings to get it.


OS Name Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium
Version 6.0.6001 Service Pack 1 Build 6001
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name SEPH-PC
System Manufacturer Gateway
System Model DX4200-09
System Type x64-based PC
Processor AMD Phenom(tm) 9150e Quad-Core Processor, 1800 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 7B3P091G, 8/6/2008
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.0.6001.18000"
User Name Seph-PC\Seph
Time Zone Eastern Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.75 GB
Available Physical Memory 1.87 GB
Total Virtual Memory 7.69 GB
Available Virtual Memory 5.64 GB
Page File Space 4.04 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

 

[Machine_gun]

What is the model of your board? It usually listed in the product page already of the maximium compatibility of the memory. So you can go to the website and check if it is support 8GB before you buy it. Otherwise it's gonna be a waste of money.

 

[Sheepykins]

the bigger question is, what architecture is your operating system? if its 32-bit, then you're out of luck - 4 gigs of ram is the most you'll ever be able to use. And you cant even use all of that, you may see 4 but it will only ever use 3.2 gigs of it.

Just because you have a quadcore does not mean you have a 64bit OS, depending on when you bought it. especially if it was 3 years ago.
find out by right click > properties my computer. it'll tell you the bit type under the "system:" in the first tab.

if its 32bit, you'll want a new OS. which will send the cost up considerably but dont get vista 64. its junky.

 

[Lotherein]

im currently running vista 64 actually, microsoft isnt offering the free upgrade to windows 7 anymore from what i see but yes i can install up to 8 gigs